American Irish Repertory Ensemble

Maine's Irish Theater Company

Susan Reilly in AIRE's first production, The Tinker's Wedding and other Tales.

A New Beginning for AIRE

It's hard to believe ...

...that it will be three years since AIRE’s last full production. It was Sunday, December 21st and we performed a matinee of A Celtic Christmas. Little did we know that in a few days our world would change completely.

It’s been a long, hard climb since then, and there were many times when I thought it would never happen. But yes -- we’re doing it. Starting next April, AIRE will once again be bringing Portland the best in Irish and Irish-American theater. Susan and I had always been intensely proud of the work we did with AIRE and its contribution to the vibrant Portland theater scene, so I couldn’t just let it go.

So AIRE will be reborn this April, starting with Outside Mullingar, a beautiful Irish romantic comedy. In many ways it feels as if we are starting from scratch. And as we did in the beginning we need to ask for your support. We want to continue to bring you the best of theater that celebrates the Irish spirit -- but that costs money. We so appreciate the generosity you have shown us in the past, and we hope we can call on you again to help bring AIRE back to life.

Tony Reilly

Outside Mullingar

April 5 — 22, 2018
The Studio Theater at 25a Forest Avenue

Tony Award nominee for Best Play. Written by John Patrick Shanley, the man who brought us Doubt and the script for the film Moonstruck. Outside Mullingar is directed by Dan Burson and will feature Maureen Butler, Jan Gardner, Joe Bearor and myself in the role of Tony Reilly (really, that’s the character’s name). It’s a romantic comedy set in rural Ireland. Anthony and Rosemary are lovelorn farmers who haven’t got a clue when it comes to love. These hopeless singletons will need to overcome a bitter land feud, familial rivalries and their own romantic fears to find happiness. Full of dark humor and poetic prose, John Patrick Shanley’s tenderhearted portrait reminds us it’s never too late to take a chance on love.

Outside Mullingar is supported in part by the Maine Theater Fund of the Maine Community Foundation.